The fate of contract employees in labor-intensive industries is more tragic than workers who have been laid off (PHK). If employees affected by layoffs receive severance pay, then contract employees must simply accept their fate. The number of workers whose contracts were terminated was also large. "It could be like that, more than 2x as many as those affected by layoffs (200,000) people are more, because those who have terminated contracts never report," said General Chairperson of the Association of Indonesian Filament and Yarn Producers (APSyFI) Redma Gita Wirawasta, Thursday (19/ 1/2023).

The number of employees affected by layoffs has reached more than 100,000 people, while contract workers are even greater. They have less bargaining power than permanent employees, because their status is easier to terminate.

"If the contract has been immediately terminated. We don't need to report to the Manpower Office," said Redma.

The phenomenon of contract termination and employee layoffs occurred due to reduced demand for exports from abroad. So far, there has been no improvement in the number of requests. As a result, the affected employees are getting bigger, including the laid off workers.

"If you count from the decline, utilization is converted to labor, per month there have been 700 thousand people who have been laid off," said Redma.

"However, several companies are still retaining their workforce in the hope that conditions will improve. So they are still being employed even though their workload has been reduced a lot because their orders have fallen a lot," he added.

For this reason, he asked the government to act immediately, including strictly protecting the domestic market.

"The domestic market is filled with imported goods. Actually, the government wants to restore this condition very easily. There is already a policy, it only remains to be strictly enforced. We really hope that, at a time like this, the government will guarantee the domestic market," Redma concluded.